Call for Belgium’s unsafe Tihange nuclear reactor to be shut down

The Parliament Magazine 11th Dec 2018 , Leading Greens MEP Rebecca Harms has called for the decommissioning of a Belgian nuclear reactor as it no longer meets international safety
standards. Harms said that Belgian authorities should shut down the
country’s oldest nuclear reactor, Tihange 1, 43 years after it began
operations, given that almost no Belgian reactors are connected to the
grid.

“The reactor’s design is hopelessly outdated and no longer meets
today’s international safety requirements. It seems impossible to retrofit
the old reactor to bring it up to the state of the art in science and
technology.”

Harms’ demand coincides with the publication of a damning
new study on the risks of the continued operation of Tihange 1. The author
of the study, reactor safety expert Prof Manfred Mertins, presented the
findings at a news briefing in the European Parliament. He told reporters
he has raised “serious doubts” concerning the plant’s accident
safety. The academic came to the conclusion that the continued operation of
Tihange 1 due to “outdated reactor design, inadequate safety management
and the accumulation of frequent unplanned events represents a potential
danger for the site and its surroundings.” It was particularly critical
“that the results of international tests and current safety standards are
not adequately taken into account.”https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/articles/news/rebecca-harms-decommission-hopelessly-outdated-belgian-nuclear-reactor